This section is intended to introduce several aspects of the art, which may be related with exemplary embodiments of the present invention. This discussion is believed to assist in providing a context to enable a better understanding of particular aspects of the present invention. In view of that, it should be understood that this section should be read in this light, and not necessarily as admissions of prior art.
Scientists are often tasked with field exploration for the purpose of discovering information and potential resources. Field exploration is at times conducted in remote areas and may be considered a relatively expensive and high-risk endeavour with typically no guarantees of finding information or commercially viable resources.
Scientists are at times also tasked with creating visual representations of their discoveries for the purpose of communicating information to others or for the purpose of aiding with the evaluation of commercial opportunities. In other situations, the visual representations of their discoveries serve educational purposes.
For instance, geologists or geoscientists are often tasked with subsurface exploration. These experts, who study the science of the solid Earth and the processes by which the solid Earth is shaped and changed, are regularly given mandates of generating targets within a predetermined subsurface volume. Geologists involved in subsurface exploration often use geological modeling to define the geometry and location of deposits.
Geological modeling usually includes representing subsurface volumes of the Earth based on observations made by a geologist. Common techniques involve dividing the subsurface volume into a grid and defining or predicting geological properties within the grid. In general, the methods and systems available for tridimensional geological modeling require the use of a computer and the appropriate software, which can be quite expensive, non-intuitive and requiring constant software updates.
As a result, geologists are regularly confronted with several inconveniences that are at times even disabling to their work. These inconveniences primarily relate to geographical isolation, namely limited access to technical training and limited access to necessary tools and technologies.
In the context of educational training, the practical study of geology involves doing a lot of drilling into the ground and, as such, a great deal of training involves learning about drilling orientations and angles. It is thus expected of a trained geologist to understand exactly where a drilled wellbore ends up underground, which is often quite difficult for some to visualize. Additionally, in circumstances where it is not possible for students to experience field exploration during their education, tangible visualization tools for providing a visual and physical representation of subsurface volumes are not readily available.
The above-described examples also portray a similar situation experienced by students and scientist in other scientific disciplines, but not limited to, various natural sciences including Earth sciences, glaciology, oceanology, limnology, climatology, or space sciences.
Thus, there is still a need for inexpensive and intuitive tridimensional modeling tools that provide physical representations of an exploration network.